


Shake the Disease

by SophiaAlexisRin



Series: Depeche Mode Songfics [1]
Category: Depeche Mode, Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: But it's way better than the Isle, Child Abuse, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Eating Disorders, F/F, F/M, Hurt Carlos de Vil, Hurt Evie (Disney), Hurt Jay (Disney), Hurt Mal (Disney), Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, M/M, Nightmares, Not Beta Read, Other, Past Child Abuse, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26569738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SophiaAlexisRin/pseuds/SophiaAlexisRin
Summary: Jay watches, quietly as Auradon heals them, slowly, as they begin to grow again.TW: Please Read Tags
Relationships: Ben/Evie/Jay/Mal/Carlos de Vil, Evie/Jay/Mal/Carlos de Vil, implied
Series: Depeche Mode Songfics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811824
Comments: 1
Kudos: 75





	Shake the Disease

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Eating Disorders and Child Abuse

Arudon is a lot better than what they were expecting Jay has this though about twelve times a day. The shining halls and bright smiling faces, hopeful of becoming the next kings and queens. They fit in better than many people were expecting Jay can read it on their faces. But Mal and Evie are queens and princesses, even on the Isle where they ran everything. Power oozes off of them as they traverse the corridors. Jay has carved himself a place on the tourney team he fits there it doesn’t itch like every role he’s ever played has. Carlos, he was worried would be alone, never fitting in with this place’s perfect people. But it's Carlos and he warms the hearts and elbows himself into being with Nerdy people who treat him like he’s been there since they were born. But sometimes things happen. Things that Jay doesn’t like happening.

Mal is Power. She is Maleficent's daughter and she stands tall, never bowing her head no matter the cost. Being submissive on the Isle will get you hurt, beaten until your coughing up blood and crying, which will always lead to more punishment. He’s seen Mal like that before they had learned to talk to each other before they had become a team. Mal crackles sometimes, it used to just be the leather of her clothes cracking but now, it's her magic pooling off her and solidifying in purple sparks. There was a crowd outside the school for a while, just long enough for Mal to get uncomfortable, a crowd of people with white, hand-painted perfect signs. Calling Mal every name, every slur, and insult because she had magic and they didn’t like it. So Mal won’t bow her head for anyone, will never let herself be vulnerable, and yet… 

I'm not going down on my knees begging you to adore me

Can't you see it's misery and torture for me?

Evie’s Isle takeaway is the scariest, Evie has always been beautiful. Jay knows that aesthetically Evie has the perfect face and body and that people like to make comments. But sometimes it’s them all walking to the girl's dorm and Evie taking a dip in the middle crashing to the floor, or it’s Evie hunched over toilets bile covering her fingers, her knuckles bruising and a film on her tongue. They give her a diagnosis here, a proper name for an illness they didn’t even know they could have. Evie doesn’t get better. She’s still beautiful and she will check her face on any reflective surface, and they find her pushing half-finished plates away more than she finishes them, but yet…

You know how hard it is for me to shake the disease

That takes hold of my tongue in situations like these

Carlos grows in Auridon, they were all stunted but Carlos begins to smile with his eyes more and more, and the bruises around his neck begin to fade until Jay never sees them anymore. Curella’s influence finally leaves the boy alone, his hands begin to move again, the thing Jay had watched Curella attempt to beat out of her son while he could do nothing, he watches Carlos thrash in his dreams though, watches him cry out in phantom pain until the smaller boy wakes up gasping and crying. Tucking himself in next to Jay, until the sniffles disappear and he falls into an uneasy sleep. But Carlos still flinches whenever Chad gets too close to him, the recoil off of it always puts the young prince in a somber mood. Carlos gets better but sometimes Jay watches the phantoms of their life flit onto Carlos’s face and anchor themselves there and not let the poor boy go, and yet… 

When I'm misunderstood Try as hard as you can

I've tried as hard as I could

To make you see how important it is for me

Here is a plea from my heart to you

The coronation, he watches Mal, in her regal purple give a slight decline of her head towards the Royal family and kiss Ben soundly, grinning from ear to ear and vulnerable, it's a massive sign of respect it nearly sends him reeling, that she trusts these people enough to bow to them. (The next day, when Aurora visits, she does not get the same courtesy, even when the prissy woman demands it.)

Understand me

Understand me

Evie sits with them one breakfast and eats. It’s not half as much as the rest of them, but it's more than they’ve seen her eat in a very long time. She laughs at something Carlos is saying and eating cereal. A full bowl, but something they haven’t seen in a very long while. Mal’s eyes are shining with tears, and Jay thinks he looks very similar. (They find her the next day sobbing, looking in the mirror, and she doesn’t touch food for two days.)

Understand me

Understand me

Carlos, one night, just curls up under his arm and the younger boy sleeps soundly for a whole night, no tossing and turning and Jay watches. Lets one hand card through the younger boy's hair and Dude lie flat across his chest. Breathing evening out. (The next day the class is disruptive and loud, and Carlos bursts into tears and struggles for breath and his hands don’t dance for a week.)

Understand me

Understand me

One day, they sit together, the four of them in the boys' dorm and there cuddled close, Evie has discarded her makeup and undone her hair. (Jay covered all the mirrors in the room.) She has her feet across Jay’s lap as the screen lights them in bright blue. She throws her head back with laughter every so often, and Jay thinks as he kisses her forehead that she never looks prettier than this. Carlos is cuddled up as well, he’s squished himself back into Jay’s side and his making quips. His hands are flying with excited speech, as he talks, Dude is barking along just excitedly. Mal, fearless Mal, has her head tilted up and she’s snoring quietly. Jay has a hand in her hair just playing with it, she’s completely vulnerable and that's when he gets it. 

Nobody knows me as well as you do

They all have scars from the Isle, and they're never going to leave entirely. But one day they will be better, they won’t be living in the shadows of their parents any longer and they will heal and Jay feels hope ignited like a bomb in his chest.

Understand me

Understand me

(It’s a few weeks later, and they are sitting very much the same when Ben walks in. His head is bowed but he looks so tenderly hopeful that they let him in. Mal presses a kiss on his forehead as Jay pulls him down so the boy can lay his head on Evie’s legs and have Carlos play with his hair and Jay sighs because now everything is complete and the little voice at the back of his head quiets for the first time in forever. He never steals again.)

Some people have to be permanently together

Lovers devoted to each other forever


End file.
